The points were a deserved reward for the 29-year-old German who had to start from the back of the grid after an accident in Saturday’s first qualifying session.

“First of all, I want to thank the whole team for putting the car together so effectively after my accident yesterday. It was a great effort,” Schumacher said. “Had it not been for Saturday I’m sure I could have ended up with even more points.”

Although it is almost impossible to pass at Monte Carlo, Schumacher managed to improve his position by four places in the early laps. “I passed a few cars into Mirabeau but then I was held up in traffic,” he explained.

A minor crash at Mirabeau after 24 laps caused a blocked track and a Safety Car deployment which played to Schumacher’s advantage almost as much as it hurt the chances of Panasonic Toyota Racing team mate Jarno Trulli, who planned his race around a one-stop strategy.

“After the Safety Car I began moving through the field,” Ralf continued. “And in the end there was a long chain of cars behind Fernando Alonso, all going slowly. With the Ferraris behind me it was a bit difficult. I wanted to attack but I had to concentrate on defence as well. In the end my brother Michael almost collided with me as we went across the line side-by-side.” In fact, so close were the two Schumacher brothers that they could not be separated on the timing monitors! The official gap was just 0.04s!

For Trulli, the day started positively when he improved his starting position to fifth in the second of the aggregated qualifying sessions and then passed Mark Webber’s BMW Williams before the first corner.

“I was having a strong race, keeping up a good pace,” he explained. “I had quite a delicate task because I was having to push 100% at the same time as taking care of the fuel to enable me to do the one-stop strategy. The Safety Car worked against me and then, unfortunately, the two Renaults started struggling with their tyres and I lost a lot of time stuck behind Giancarlo Fisichella. I lost track position to the two BMW Williams drivers and when Fisichella finally made a mistake at Mirabeau, I hit the inside kerb hard as I took advantage and passed him at the next corner, Loews Hairpin.”

After that Trulli’s TF105 felt unbalanced and the winner of last year’s Monaco GP was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop to have his car checked. He eventually finished the race out of the points in 10th place.

Kimi Raikkonen scored his second successive win for West McLaren Mercedes, ahead of the BMW Williams drivers, Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber, who both achieved their best F1 finishes. Championship leader Fernando Alonso was fourth for Mild Seven Renault, with Juan Pablo Montoya fifth in the second McLaren Mercedes. Behind Ralf, brother Michael and Rubens Barrichello claimed the final points for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro.

Panasonic Toyota Racing’s chief race engineer, Dieter Gass, said: “It was a great race from Ralf. Driving from last to sixth was tremendous and shows that at Monaco you have to be prepared for anything and keep fighting right to the end. Jarno was obviously unfortunate. The Safety Car played into the hands of those planning two stops because it was within their pit stop range. And then he was unlucky to be blocked for so long by Fisichella, who was losing his tyres. We checked the car carefully when he pitted again on lap 65 but didn’t see anything, which is why we sent him out again.”

Alonso (49 points) has a 22-point lead at the top of the drivers’ championship, with Raikkonen (27) now one point ahead of Trulli (26) after his back-to-back victories. Ralf Schumacher (17) is in sixth place. In the constructors’ championship Panasonic Toyota Racing is third, with 43 points to the 51 of West McLaren Mercedes and the 63 of the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team. The hectic summer F1 schedule continues with the Grand Prix of Europe at Nurburgring in just one week.